Facebook video rises to no. 3

The number of people watching videos on Facebook climbed to more than 51 million in July, placing it in third place behind YouTube and VEVO, comScore said.

YouTube maintains a healthy lead with more than 158 million viewers, but Facebook appears to be closing ranks on VEVO, the music video channel, which had 62 million viewers in July.

Just a month earlier, Facebook had been ranked sixth in video, behind Microsoft and Viacom Digital, when it logged about 48 million viewers. Applications such as the new Miramax app no doubt is helping Facebook boost its video viewership figures.

Overall, 86 percent of Internet users, or about 180 million, watched video in July. They tuned in 6.9 billion times, for an average of 18.5 hours per person.